Government proposes subsidised RON95 and unsubsidised RON99

The petrol that we find at petrol pumps these days are mostly RON97, with RON92 being available at a few stations (I can only think of Shell stations that have previously been Projet stations, Esso and Mobil stations). RON92 is the cheapest petrol at RM1.88 per litre. There are two different grades of RON97 available – the usual is priced RM1.92 and there is only one premium brand – Shell V-Power Racing, priced at RM2.15.

The government is proposing that these grades of petrol be revised to RON95 and RON99 instead. RON95 will be subsidised and have its price kept low, while the subsidies for RON99 fuel will be much lower, although still subsidised. This would mean the gap of price between the two grades of fuel will be much larger than compared to the current RM1.88 versus RM1.92 for RON92 versus RON97.

By doing this, the government thinks it effectively takes some burden off the low to middle-class income earners while the rich who “drive SUVs and performance cars” can pay more for their RON99 fuel, which will give them “better performance.”

In reality I can only think of a few cars that would require a fuel with an octane running higher than our maximum of RON97 to achieve its peak horsepower – the Honda Civic Type R and the Volkswagen Golf GTI which both run optimally on RON98 fuel. The engine’s computer automatically retards ignition timing to compensate for lower octane fuel – this means you won’t be getting the spec-sheet horsepower figures you paid for.

Some engines do more than just retard ignition timing. The Mazdaspeed 6 which needs at least RON91 (RON93 for optimum horsepower and torque) for example, cuts off its 2.3 litre DISI turbocharged engine’s boost through the means of a wastegate from 4,200rpm onwards to protect the engine.

The thing is, while filling up your car’s fuel tank with fuel that has a lower octane rating than specified will decrease performance, or with some old engines even damage the engine, unless you modify your engine like advance your ignition timing or run higher boost for example, you’re not going to get any benefits by using a fuel with a higher octane than required like RON99 fuel, unless the fuel companies are going to skimp on the additive package with the lower octane fuel, which is most likely going to be the case if the new RON95 is going to be offered at a lower price than our current RON97 price of RM1.92.

Saying RON99 fuel will offer better performance than RON92 based on octane alone is completely wrong, and plenty of luxury cars these days these days only require between RON92 and RON95 fuel, though it will work with fuel as low as RON91. Some latest generation normally aspirated Mazda engines have an even lower octane requirement, working perfectly fine and in fact designed for RON87!

But I must say that RON95 is a sweet spot choice, as alot of engines that are considered to require what is called “premium unleaded fuel” world-wide these days usually mean it needs a minimum of RON95.

As always, check with your workshop or manual to find out what octane your engine needs. Proton’s Campro engines and most of the 16 valve Mitsubishi engines installed in Protons (4G92 in Wira 1.6 and 4G93 in Satria GTi) run on a minimum of RON95. Buy higher octane fuel only if you like what the particular fuel’s additives package gives your engine and think the benefits are worth it. This can be very different from car to car, and alot of it depends on feeling, so its a very personal thing.

UPDATE #2: Many of the low to middle income consumers in Malaysia keep their cars for as long as 10 to 15 years or more. Old engines may and most likely have combustion chambers that are loaded with carbon deposits, affecting its shape and creating hot spots around. This increases the chances for engine knocking by a margin despite the proper fuel octane used. So for old engines, sometimes higher octane fuels have to be used to prevent engine knocking which will result in engine damage. Thus RON97 in a RON95 engine… I guess this is what we have been doing all this while.

UPDATE: DPM Najib Tun Razak says the government will decide on its plan to slash the subsidy for the higher grade of petrol before the end of 2008.

How much do you think the new RON95 and RON99 fuels should be priced at? And which would you choose to fill up your tank with? As additional reading, find out more about fuel octane from the links below.

After dabbling for years in the IT industry, Paul Tan initially began this site as a general blog covering various topics of personal interest. With an increasing number of readers paying rapt attention to the motoring stories, one thing led to another and the rest, as they say, is history. An avid electronic gadget aficionado as well as big-time coffee lover, he's also the executive producer of the Driven motoring TV programme.

haha, rich people still will use poor-man’s fuel then. Then gov will still need to pay more as less people use RON99 fuel. Then petrol pump operators might as well just offer RON95 as its the cheaper fuel

back i was in australia, i used to own a mitsubishi lancer mx or glxi as they call there, single cam, 4g93 producing 122hp 164nm of torque, i ran on RON92 (cheapest and standardised fuel available there, besides RON94, E95, same price, although different company, as it was the only company providing E95 using sugar cane extract). frankly, most mitsubishi engines are ok with it. not really sure about campro, but im sure the older mercedes could tolerate it too, plus i think everyone is just gonna pay ron95, seeing that ron99 is close to v-power’s contents (ron98). does this means that the v-power could be taking shape in ron99 or ron100? that would be cool, but still gonna be expensive. if we are still paying rm1.92 for ron95, then it wouldn’t be any worth it. back in australia, we dont even pay road tax but let the petrol to be floated on free market.

don’t understand why gove construct this subsidy structure? gov should give more incentive (subsidies)to people who buying environment friendly cars (eg: civic hybrid) instead of fuel consuming cars(eg: proton gen2). this car requires more fuel to run for same distance and gov wil need to subsidy more for this car..pls abolish this system!!!

neh… i think the ron99 will not be offered. Instead it will be still RON97, but at higher new price. thats the G ambition since many years ago… increase price!

New lower ron petrol shall be introduced and subsidiced higher. I support this. As there are really lots of lower income people that require car to go to work, stuck in traffic jam few hours, and have to travel so far to buy glosarry, and paying huge amount of toll, and thousand speed trap in KL. They really need some relief! SOKONG.

Even slighly old proton wira barely run well on RON97. As cars get older thier Octane requirements usually increase due to carbon buildup generating hotspots in the combustion chamber. Hotspots will lead to pinging or knocking…which is why older cars need higher octane fuel. This is even worst when our weather is hot, compounding the problem.

Idiots who even suggests this would probably be ignorant to know that most of our protons do not have knock sensors to tell the ECM that the engine is pinging/knocking to retard the timing. Running the wrong fuel will eventually damage your engine. Both my Satria and Wira will only run on RON97, running RON92 will cause serious pinging.

Only cars with knock sensors will retard timing.

Typical government types. Only the rich can buy new cars, the less well to do will have to shell out even more.

I’m fine with differential pricing on fuel. I’ve lived years in countries where gas prices are floated and fluctuates daily. But then again our purchasing power is a lot higher there and we can afford to change cars on a whim. Dollar to ringgit, a civic is only $20k.

Paul Tan says: You are correct about older cars having higher octane requirements over time because of the condition of the combustion chamber. It’s unfortunate that the majority of cars on the road are Protons which require a high octane of 95 in its original state, over time it would be even higher!

i agree wif babelon, they should reduce or give some subsidies to cars that are environmentally friendly and encourage ppl to use them. like i think singapore has some perks when u drive prius or insight

Who thought rich people will buy more expensive fuel? If he is a prudent businessman he’d buy cheap gas. If he is a proxy businessman he’d buy cheap gas (don’t know how long datuk’s gonna be ontop). If he is a handout businessman he can’t afford an expensive car and will buy cheap gas.

The guys who would buy expensive gas are probably the same guys who fill up their BMW’s while posing at the V power pump and looking around to see if anybody is looking. Poseurs and Losers in general.

Haha, that is korek korek korek!! Seriously, if govt really gonna intro RON99, I’d say sell it at unsubsidised price and focus the subsidies on the RON95 instead. Then less posers n losers can afford to show off edi, lol.

what a waste of juice…
why bother about RON99 fuel when the real demand for better fuel is really the DIESEL…. we need cleaner diesel not another petrol variations! Our diesels still at Euro2 stage and this is not at all environmental friendly nor turbo-diesel friendly either!

Government ministries mostly blind! YES, the price in MALAYSIA cheaper in Malaysia than SG but their salary how many higher than us. Their prices drop substantially since 1998-2008. In 1998 Civic 1.6 around SGD110k now SGD70k! Malaysia scenario-opposite!

Quality of Diesel, one of the world dirtiest diesel.

CHEAP? Not really if we compare with other world producing states.

Better solution than this is: Roadtax, gas prices based on MPG. The better the FC you pay lower, vice versa. Or calculated based on Co2 emission.

The whole thing should be looked at differently. Abolish AP, cars should be taxed minimally according to price and abolish the road tax. Petrol should then be sold at world market price, no need for subsidy.In fact it should be taxed slightly.

The rich who uses more fuel per km will pay more. The lower income people will use fuel saving vehicles and therefore pay less in fuel tax. In the current situation rich people uses fuel-guzzling vehicles therefore a lot of subsidy went to them.

I don’t know why people think that our oil is enough to sustain our own consumption. I am in Oil and Gas. Been so for 18 years, so lend me your ears. We have 4 refineries.

The 3 refineries; Petronas Melaka, Shell Port Dickson and Exxon Mobil Port Dickson, they process imported oil with a total of max production of 450,000 barrels/day. These feed the requirements for West Coast where most of the consumption is. Most of it is pumped to KVDT in Dengkil and it acts like a distribution centre. We only have Terengganu Refinery at max 40,000 barrels/day that process the Tapis blend sweet crude from offshore Terengganu and supplies East Coast West M’sia.

Please take into account that none of the refineries operate close to max production levels, ever.

Oh sorry, didn’t mention that the barrels per day is the capacity of crude being processed and not petrol production. Terengganu Refinery also provide raw material for the plastics petrochemical plants such as Aromatics, VCM and Petlin…

its a good thinking but still too many flaws. everybody will just downgrade to RON95 en masse and that might result in higher subsidy amount in the end.

RON99? emmm.. no benefit? why offer this product all over the country just to serve the rich n super rich?

why not maintain with current RON92 & RON97 but increase the price of RON97 and decrease RON92. RON99 is up to petrol station whether they want it or not, kinda like v-power, not available everywhere. on-demand item.

In addition, at the same time upgrade the diesel to AT LEAST Euro4 compliance and price the diesel, as cheap as possible.

so normal rakyat can either go for RON92 or diesel.
of course the new diesel might be the loophole coz there are rich people that use premium / luxury diesel vehicles. but if the new subsidy amount for RON97 and the new diesel is quite near then ok la.

Or perhaps Govt. need to think another strategy for diesel – its a must, many countries are moving to diesel – coz the demand is there, ppl just waiting for it.. (example what can be done –> introduce 2 grade of diesel.. Euro 2 and Euro 4 – where Euro 4 sell at premium), but whatever it is, Govt. need to polish their thinking some more, you r in the right track so dont waste it while u r there. :)

Hi Paul, thanks for highlighting my points. Its important for consumers to understand the implications of such policies.

We should also stress that unless your car comes with knock sensors, the engine can only run a “fixed” octane level. Most older protons dont come with one – ie. 4G13/4G15/4G92 and even my 4G93 SOHC.

Older cars and cars not equipped with knock sensors will be stuck using very expensive fuel if this is passed. low to middle income families will be affected the most, since its unlikely they will be able to change cars on the onset of such policies.

However, you could retard the ignition timing (ie. up to 3-5 degrees BTDC – stock on protons/mitsu should be about 5-8 degrees) to run lower octane fuel (perhaps up to 2-3 points) but you will get a serius hit on power and fuel economy.

As per the Mazda, I haven’t crossed checked my data, but does it really run on RON87 or does it run on PON87?. Pump octane rating (PON) system is used on North america and its a few points down (ie. RON92 ~ PON87, RON97 ~ PON93)

Back then when they introduce the unleaded petrol there is a fuss about knocking. Shell even suggest mixed between the 97 ron and 92 ron petrol for older cars. Hey, those riches can do this too. Mixed it together. Save. Diesel is a problem. Even luxury cars use Diesel.

i imagine RON95 will be priced slightly higher than current RON92 but cheaper than RON97… it’s common sense.. so people who r currently using RON92 will have to pay more? in other way, the fuel price actually increase (for them).. :)

but, as mentioned by others earlier, what about Diesel? it’s actually the most important fuel for economy & ‘price’ sensitive as we all know, fuel increase (diesel actually) mean other goods will also go up.. foods, road transport etc..

p/s: i know what PM said earlier.. no fuel price increase ‘so soon’.. but, to tell the truth, i don’t really trust that guy.. LOL

my experience and fuel consumption test tell me that you the cost of premium petrol is worth it. they work out to be about the same. i.e distance travelled with the same amount of money. but you do save money by using the premium petrol. all the cars ive owned ive found premium petrol gives you more distance for the same money while giving a better drive. more responsive and less rough/vibrate. regardless what the minimum requirement is for the different type of engines.

of course premium ulp may differ for different countries and diff companies but my calculations are for the difference of 8-16cents AUD difference between PULP and normal ULP. the savings increase exponentially when you are doing fluctuating and constant high speeds of 130-180kmh. normal city/highway driving PULP has the slight upper hand.

the only advantage ULP has is that u get to ‘see’ that u get more litres for the same amount of money (which usually plays with the minds of people with lower income groups as its cheaper for refineries to make or government to buy or at least thats what i think).

anyway my tests were done using normal ron92 ULP vs Ron98 BP ultimate and shell premium which is about ron97. caltex premium at ron97 gives the same results. civic 1.8 8th gen, 2001 corolla and a 1997 vtir integra and a 1988 nissan. other one timer tests were a 2001 and 2005 camrys.

prometheus
it is interesting the k20z requires minimum of ron91. i’d just stick with the premium if i were you. especially when it works out cheaper.

do away with the marketing hype or what the car mags complain when the cars dont accept lower octane fuel (and they have to pay more or premium) and perform your own tests. if they want to help lower economic class citizens save money then subsidize ron97 or more. dont just look for the cheapest fuel u can get your hands on.

1. Just tax 1000 ringgit for impoted car
2. No tax at all for hybrid car
3. No for APs i mean all including sugar, rice etc
4. Bonus for civil servants
5. Increase the salary of Cabinet Ministers and all MPS
6. Increase Corporate tax
7. Decrease Income Tax
8. Elect me as the Penasihat to The PM and all is settle !

My Nissan Sunny 130Y requires a minimum fuel rating of RON95. And my car definitely does not have any knock sensor, or active ignition timing control. RON92 will basically destroy the engine.

The higher the RON number, the higher the resistance the fuel has to knock. Knock basically means premature uncontrolled combustion of the fuel in the chamber. If the compression ratio of the engine is too high for the fuel, it will start burning before the spark plug activates. The mixture will explode while the piston is moving up, and this will seriously damage the chamber walls and valves and piston.

Note that the RON standard is used primarily in Europe. Other countries use other standards, which usually average out the difference between the RON number and other numbers. In a country like Malaysia, there should only be fuels above RON95.

The government should take more time to research this, because we are not a big player in the automotive industry. In fact we are quite insignificant. This means that our fuel has to follow whatever the general trend is for cars being produced and imported here. They must also know that the national car maker is making cars with outdated technology, thus needing outdated fuels. Look at the Waja and Perdana for instance.

Government shall waive the road tax for proton & perodua to encourage people to buy barang buatan Malaysia.

I think the price for RON95 will still RM1.92 and government will saying that they will bankrupt if reduce price because all the while government is reducing their revenue (tax) collection from us and increasing subsidiaries.

We shall ban all the racing event in the world because it burns up the fuel that will be finished within 30years just for entertaining us.

poor ppls pump cheaper 95 oil for their motorbikes
normal ppls pump cheaper 95 oil for their cars
rich ppls pump cheaper 95 oil for their SUV or MPV and sell it before the engine come to problematic, they can afford to change car within 3~5 yrs what….

Words from our ministers and news from our newspapers are NOT always the truth. Judge and investigate it yourself. Those that can afford high-end SUV or MPV can afford RON99 obviously.

You guys should worry about low to middle income people. Ppl riding on motorbike, driving Proton and Perodua are the main concern. If the govt implement this, by right, RON95 is supposed to be cheaper than RON97. I m afraid that older Proton cars need RON97 and above because of outdated engine technology.

I use RON92 on my old Kancil, now I change it to RON95 as it was not in SALE anymore. Not much different. Then I try this RON95 on my Toyota Unser, also working fine, no knocking on my engine. For me no problem if Government want to change the RON number but the only hope from 1 Malaysia Government, can change this new RON95 price to the lower than current price RM1.75. :) :) :)

Just run with RON 95 dude. If you're not satisfy, live at singapore or Thailand. End of story.

I spend 3 yrs live at Bangkok. i learn something here. Petrol is a gold. Expensive. So just pump whatever fuel u get as long as cheap and it can run ur vehicle. RON 99? forget it! Enjin rosak? so buy cheap car instead of civic type r. Kuat telan minyak? so buy low cc cars.

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